Minimally invasive medical techniques are intended to reduce the amount of tissue that is damaged during diagnostic or surgical procedures, thereby reducing patient recovery time, discomfort, and harmful side effects. Such minimally invasive techniques may be performed through one or more of a patient's natural orifices (e.g., ear, nose, mouth, urethra, vagina, anus) or through one or more surgical incisions. Clinicians insert surgical instruments through these natural orifices or incisions to reach a target tissue location. To reach the target tissue location, the minimally invasive surgical instruments may navigate natural or surgically created connected passageways in anatomical systems, such as the pulmonary, gastro-intestinal, urinary, circulatory, lymphatic, and nervous systems, or the like. To allow a surgeon to visualize the passageways, often an endoscopic probe is fed through the passageways to capture and return images. As the endoscopic probe is advanced, body matter, such as blood, tissue, or mucus, accumulates on the end of the probe and obstructs the view of the passageways. Typically, a surgeon must interrupt the procedure to remove the probe for cleaning. This external cleansing practice is time consuming and increases the risk of damaging patient tissue with repeated insertions of the probe. Improved systems and methods are needed for cleaning endoscopic probes in vivo.